Computing and managing conflicting functional data requirements using ontologies

Abstract

In one or more embodiments of the invention, functional data analysts may use a functional data authoring module to capture functional metadata in a consistent manner. Conflict reports for the business processes may be generated for a subset of the business processes or as an overall report across all business processes. One or more embodiments of the invention may provide early detection of data usage and type conflicts from functional data requirements, automated detection of conflicts from functional data requirements, reports listing detected conflicts, conflicts resolution tracking mechanism, ongoing notification regarding changes in functional data requirements or detected conflicts, and avoidance of conflicting functional requirement in the realization phase, thereby reducing costs and project risks and avoiding project delays.

1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a computing device, a request to generate a conflict report for two or more business processes;   processing, by the computing device, a business object of one of the two or more business processes to identify at least one attribute associated with the one of the two or more business processes;   identifying, by the computing device, existing entries in an ontology for the at least one attribute of the two or more business processes by comparing the at least one attribute to the ontology associated with the two or more business processes;   comparing, by the computing device, metadata of the existing entries in the ontology and the at least one attribute to identify a conflicting data requirement between the existing entries and the at least one attribute; and   generating, by the computing device, the conflict report for the two or more business processes comprising the conflicting data requirement between the existing entries and the at least one attribute.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the computing device, metadata for the business object from a user via a user interface, wherein the received metadata is associated with the at least one attribute; and   updating, by the computing device, the business object to include the received metadata from the user.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating a notification responsive to the generated conflict report. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the notification may be one of an email, a text message, and a pop-up notification. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising matching, by the computing device, the at least one attribute to the ontology using one of dictionary matching, regular expression matching and fuzzy matching, wherein dictionary matching uses a dictionary derived from the ontology. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 generating, by the computing device, a result list, wherein the result list does not include at least a match between the at least one attribute and the ontology; and   creating, by the computing device, a link column entry for the at least one attribute and the business object in the ontology.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the ontology includes one or more of a static ontology, dynamic ontology, social ontology, and intentional ontology. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising automatically resolving, by the computing device, the conflicting data requirement between the existing entries and the at least one attribute. 
     
     
         9 - 24 . (canceled) 
     
     
         25 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a computing device, a request to generate a conflict report for two or more business processes;   processing, by the computing device, a business object of one of the two or more business processes to identify at least one attribute associated with the one of the two or more business processes;   identifying, by the computing device, existing entries in an ontology for the at least one attribute of the two or more business processes by comparing the at least one attribute to the ontology associated with the two or more business processes;   creating, by the computing device, a new entry for the at least one attribute of the two or more business processes and storing the new entry to the ontology;   comparing, by the computing device, metadata of the existing entries in the ontology and the at least one attribute to identify a conflicting data requirement between the existing entries and the at least one attribute; and   generating, by the computing device, the conflict report for the two or more business processes comprising the conflicting data requirement between the existing entries and the at least one attribute.